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A Real Animal
Not yet published
Expected 7 Jul 26Win a free print copy of this book!
14 days and 20:48:42
40 copies available
U.S. only
In this unforgettable debut, a moment of metaphysical transformation launches a woman’s beautiful and terrifying journey through her twenties, through loneliness and complicated love that takes her from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the plains of Texas
A Real Animal follows Lucy through the decade dividing college and real adulthood, as she navigates three distinct romantic relationships, reckons with the false promise of family intimacy, and seeks connection with the sublime and natural worlds. Lucy wants her life to be extraordinary. But this desire never seems to graft easily onto the smallness of her world. As a senior in college struggling to quell the destructive effects of a sexual assault, she gets a glimpse of a different plane of existence—more wild, physical, animal. She moves away from home, breaks up with her long term boyfriend, stops speaking to her mother, and starts dating an alternative, alternatively violent man.
As she changes cities, friends, and partners, there is a persistent sense of wildness in Lucy and in her world that’s only ever barely being controlled. The thrum of a nonhuman existential force in the back of her mind urges her to reject the ordinary, but also reminds her that she is alone in the world. She feels it in the depths of the ocean while deep sea diving, in the cold silences on phone calls with her sister and her mom, in the misunderstanding gaze of a man she thought would love her forever.
Guided by Emeline Atwood’s lightspeed, suspenseful prose, we follow Lucy across states, jobs, relationships, and stages of intimacy with her family, witnessing both moments of horrific pain and quotidian happiness. The years pass by seamlessly, bringing her to the edge of her twenties and back to an altered, barren version of her childhood home, where she must finally come to terms with the fear that being human itself might mean feeling alone, and wild, and unknowable.
A Real Animal follows Lucy through the decade dividing college and real adulthood, as she navigates three distinct romantic relationships, reckons with the false promise of family intimacy, and seeks connection with the sublime and natural worlds. Lucy wants her life to be extraordinary. But this desire never seems to graft easily onto the smallness of her world. As a senior in college struggling to quell the destructive effects of a sexual assault, she gets a glimpse of a different plane of existence—more wild, physical, animal. She moves away from home, breaks up with her long term boyfriend, stops speaking to her mother, and starts dating an alternative, alternatively violent man.
As she changes cities, friends, and partners, there is a persistent sense of wildness in Lucy and in her world that’s only ever barely being controlled. The thrum of a nonhuman existential force in the back of her mind urges her to reject the ordinary, but also reminds her that she is alone in the world. She feels it in the depths of the ocean while deep sea diving, in the cold silences on phone calls with her sister and her mom, in the misunderstanding gaze of a man she thought would love her forever.
Guided by Emeline Atwood’s lightspeed, suspenseful prose, we follow Lucy across states, jobs, relationships, and stages of intimacy with her family, witnessing both moments of horrific pain and quotidian happiness. The years pass by seamlessly, bringing her to the edge of her twenties and back to an altered, barren version of her childhood home, where she must finally come to terms with the fear that being human itself might mean feeling alone, and wild, and unknowable.
368 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication July 7, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 30, 2025
Thank you to Rachel from Catapult for sending me an arc of this brilliant book and altering the trajectory of my life, maybe. I read the last few pages over and over and over again in a trance and then wanted to read the whole thing all over again. If you want a book that puts you in touch with our horrible wonderful messy animal existence, read this. if you want to your standards for all other books to be raised impossibly high, read this!!!!!!!!!!
cw: sexual assault/miscarriage/domestic violence
cw: sexual assault/miscarriage/domestic violence
November 17, 2025
holy shit, this was incredible. from the first page i knew that i was holding something completely remarkable in my hands, and it really truly only gets better from there. by no means is "a real animal" an easy read, but i couldn't put it down nonetheless. this book does what my favorite books do- where it peels back layers of the world and shows me a different way of thinking, a perspective so honest and raw that it stays in my mind and rattles my own approach to life.
how does anyone even actually handle our ridiculous animal existence? how much truth do we need to turn away from in order to survive each day? and what stupid choice do we have but to keep going? fantastically existential, heartbreaking, and affecting. probably already the best read of 2026.
thank youuu sophie for getting me in here. you're correct always
how does anyone even actually handle our ridiculous animal existence? how much truth do we need to turn away from in order to survive each day? and what stupid choice do we have but to keep going? fantastically existential, heartbreaking, and affecting. probably already the best read of 2026.
thank youuu sophie for getting me in here. you're correct always
December 3, 2025
Whew!!! Wow!!! Not like anything else I've ever read. Wild, dizzying, so self-assured, hard to put down because it's such a captivating voice (and sometimes hard to keep going with because so much of what happens is so rough, but it's never bleak). We're all just really at each other's mercy in this world, aren't we? We can't control anything that happens to us or even, to a large extent, how we respond to what does happen. But we really think we can. Oh Lucy. I love you so much and want you to get good therapy so much because you deserve it. I really believe Lucy - who I can't believe isn't a real person - has a better mid-/late adulthood ahead of her. I feel my spirit is larger, and both less and more tethered to my body, having read this. Thank you Emeline Atwood!! Thank you Catapult!! Thank you Sophie!!
May 16, 2026
jeeesus, new depth of self awareness just dropped?? Idk wtf? Blew me apart and is reassembling the pieces in an order previously unexplored?? Idk if I’ve got a real review in me rn lol
not ready to let go of Lucy yet
not ready to let go of Lucy yet
March 30, 2026
I was completely hypnotized by this book. Lucy’s coming of age in her 20s is relatable in so many ways. She shape-shifts with each relationship and place she calls home. The most profound aspect of this novel is Lucy’s yearning to mask her feelings of vulnerability and loneliness by leaning into her feral, animalistic side. It’s not always pretty. The opening scene is a perfect reflection of that and definitely one of the coolest first pages of a book I’ve ever read. A beautiful and ambitious debut novel that should be in every woman’s beach bag this summer.
February 12, 2026
I can’t remember a stranger or more compelling opening to a book. What a fascinating place to start with this enraging, stressful character. I felt sick on this book and I loved it.
May 6, 2026
Marvelous, momentous
January 4, 2026
A Real Animal is the first book I read in 2026, and I already know it’s going to be one of the year’s best.
Heartbreaking and hopeful in equal measure, the novel is a meditation on the lasting impacts of trauma and the brave, sometimes misguided desire to lead an extraordinary life. It opens in the aftermath of sexual assault, during a visceral psychological episode near the end of Lucy’s senior year of college. Despite her mother’s urging—and her mother’s own emotional cruelty and distance, shaped by untreated mental illness—Lucy moves to Indianapolis after graduation. Indianapolis, she believes, will not only save her but return her home transformed: healthier, wealthier, socially fulfilled, and with “enough distance...from the versions of me that no longer matched.”
But you take yourself everywhere you go. Life in Indianapolis is as monotonous as life in the Northeast, and Lucy mistakes a relationship with a deeply troubled older man for progress. She’s 23. He’s 39. Rather than view this as a reflection of his immaturity, she sees proof of her own worldliness. Their sexual dynamic initially feels like reclamation—powerful, chosen—though it quickly turns dark and abusive.
Flashing to her later twenties, Lucy is in a mostly happy, mostly stable relationship with Liam, whom she loves so intently it sometimes makes her physically ill. Yet even here, fear seeps in: that he’ll leave her for another kind of woman, the kind she convinces herself is easier, better suited for him.
What makes this novel truly extraordinary is Lucy’s voice—sharp, unsparing, and achingly honest about loneliness. The treatment of SA in this novel is powerful without being reductive; its shadow lurks but does not define her. In a later scene, Lucy hears two women criticizing fiction that frames female characters as “bodies waiting to be violated.” (“Here’s a pretty white woman,” said Norah. “And now here comes the big tragic r*pe. And now here are all the graphic details.”). A Real Animal rejects that framework entirely. Lucy is more than the things that were done to her—she is a woman who is lonely, self-aware, ambitious, and wildly alive.
Heartbreaking and hopeful in equal measure, the novel is a meditation on the lasting impacts of trauma and the brave, sometimes misguided desire to lead an extraordinary life. It opens in the aftermath of sexual assault, during a visceral psychological episode near the end of Lucy’s senior year of college. Despite her mother’s urging—and her mother’s own emotional cruelty and distance, shaped by untreated mental illness—Lucy moves to Indianapolis after graduation. Indianapolis, she believes, will not only save her but return her home transformed: healthier, wealthier, socially fulfilled, and with “enough distance...from the versions of me that no longer matched.”
But you take yourself everywhere you go. Life in Indianapolis is as monotonous as life in the Northeast, and Lucy mistakes a relationship with a deeply troubled older man for progress. She’s 23. He’s 39. Rather than view this as a reflection of his immaturity, she sees proof of her own worldliness. Their sexual dynamic initially feels like reclamation—powerful, chosen—though it quickly turns dark and abusive.
Flashing to her later twenties, Lucy is in a mostly happy, mostly stable relationship with Liam, whom she loves so intently it sometimes makes her physically ill. Yet even here, fear seeps in: that he’ll leave her for another kind of woman, the kind she convinces herself is easier, better suited for him.
What makes this novel truly extraordinary is Lucy’s voice—sharp, unsparing, and achingly honest about loneliness. The treatment of SA in this novel is powerful without being reductive; its shadow lurks but does not define her. In a later scene, Lucy hears two women criticizing fiction that frames female characters as “bodies waiting to be violated.” (“Here’s a pretty white woman,” said Norah. “And now here comes the big tragic r*pe. And now here are all the graphic details.”). A Real Animal rejects that framework entirely. Lucy is more than the things that were done to her—she is a woman who is lonely, self-aware, ambitious, and wildly alive.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
i admire more in theory than in practice.
this debut clearly has ambition and emotional weight. it traces a woman’s twenties through trauma, displacement, intimacy, and a persistent sense of wildness, both in outside world and within the self. i understand what this novel is reaching for: the loneliness of becoming an adult, the way grief and desire reshape the body, and the feeling of being slightly unmoored from ordinary life. in that sense, the book succeeds at communicating its thematic intent.
however, as a reading experience, i struggled. the prose is immersive, often heavy with feeling, and while i can see how that will resonate deeply with some readers, it left me feeling burdened rather than absorbed. the emotional weight accumulates without much release, and i found myself reading with a sense of obligation instead of curiosity. i understand that this heaviness is likely deliberate—an invitation to inhabit Lucy’s inner world—but for me, it made the novel difficult to enjoy.
while i appreciated the honesty and vulnerability behind that choice, it isn’t the kind of book i would return to, or one i felt enriched by once i reached the end. still, i can see why it’s receiving such strong praise, particularly from readers who connect to its exploration of trauma, womanhood, and existential isolation. i tend to rate books based on my enjoyment, and despite its strengths, this one was not for me.
-------
to-read:
lately, i'm drawn to stories about interpersonal relationships and existentialism.
*thank you to Catapult for the ARC*
this debut clearly has ambition and emotional weight. it traces a woman’s twenties through trauma, displacement, intimacy, and a persistent sense of wildness, both in outside world and within the self. i understand what this novel is reaching for: the loneliness of becoming an adult, the way grief and desire reshape the body, and the feeling of being slightly unmoored from ordinary life. in that sense, the book succeeds at communicating its thematic intent.
however, as a reading experience, i struggled. the prose is immersive, often heavy with feeling, and while i can see how that will resonate deeply with some readers, it left me feeling burdened rather than absorbed. the emotional weight accumulates without much release, and i found myself reading with a sense of obligation instead of curiosity. i understand that this heaviness is likely deliberate—an invitation to inhabit Lucy’s inner world—but for me, it made the novel difficult to enjoy.
while i appreciated the honesty and vulnerability behind that choice, it isn’t the kind of book i would return to, or one i felt enriched by once i reached the end. still, i can see why it’s receiving such strong praise, particularly from readers who connect to its exploration of trauma, womanhood, and existential isolation. i tend to rate books based on my enjoyment, and despite its strengths, this one was not for me.
-------
to-read:
lately, i'm drawn to stories about interpersonal relationships and existentialism.
*thank you to Catapult for the ARC*
April 4, 2026
A heartbreaker
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
In a young woman’s quest of self discovery, A Real Animal, offers an unflinching examination of sex, intimacy, and relationships.
We first meet Lucy in an intensely creative opening scene and good luck turning away once you begin her story. She finishes college and goes out in the world on a mission of honing her identify. Like so many of us, she thinks she knows what her life will look like in the future, but at 22, believes there’s plenty of time to get there. Through effective flashback sequences, we learn of Lucy's traumatic past while she experiences a traumatic present. This is an unconventional character who rejects social norms in the hope of understanding love and existence.
While not perfect, the novel puts complex, hard to articulate feelings, into clear language. Inner dialogue is written superbly and it shows how two people can speak past each other. Many scenes demonstrate how men and women possess similar fears but communicate them very differently. This is an easy protagonist to care for, worry about, but sometimes not take seriously. In one page she decides to break up with a boyfriend and on the next she asks if they can get married. Her thoughts soar in all directions in the first half of the book, but the second half is tighter and we learn most about Lucy's spirit as she tries to grow closer to those with different ideals and experiences.
This is not a book for all readers, but brave fans of literary fiction will be impressed by the novel’s innovation. A Real Animal is a strongly written, impressively crafted, debut. I look forward to following Emeline Atwood, clearly a young talent.
Thanks to Edelweiss and Catapult Books for a review copy.
We first meet Lucy in an intensely creative opening scene and good luck turning away once you begin her story. She finishes college and goes out in the world on a mission of honing her identify. Like so many of us, she thinks she knows what her life will look like in the future, but at 22, believes there’s plenty of time to get there. Through effective flashback sequences, we learn of Lucy's traumatic past while she experiences a traumatic present. This is an unconventional character who rejects social norms in the hope of understanding love and existence.
While not perfect, the novel puts complex, hard to articulate feelings, into clear language. Inner dialogue is written superbly and it shows how two people can speak past each other. Many scenes demonstrate how men and women possess similar fears but communicate them very differently. This is an easy protagonist to care for, worry about, but sometimes not take seriously. In one page she decides to break up with a boyfriend and on the next she asks if they can get married. Her thoughts soar in all directions in the first half of the book, but the second half is tighter and we learn most about Lucy's spirit as she tries to grow closer to those with different ideals and experiences.
This is not a book for all readers, but brave fans of literary fiction will be impressed by the novel’s innovation. A Real Animal is a strongly written, impressively crafted, debut. I look forward to following Emeline Atwood, clearly a young talent.
Thanks to Edelweiss and Catapult Books for a review copy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Lucy has everything youth can bestow: beauty, intelligence, and an emotional attunement so finely honed it borders on a superpower. What she lacks is the confidence to own any of it. In Emeline Atwood's debut novel, we follow her through college and into young adulthood, watching as she bends herself into the shape each new relationship seems to demand, giving and giving until she is pushed past the point of return. Atwood understands something true and rarely said aloud: that adaptability, in women, is often less a choice than a survival strategy worn so long it starts to feel like personality.
The novel moves through tragedy and tenderness with equal steadiness. What keeps Lucy grounded, and what gives the book some of its most beautiful passages, is the natural world. When she is in it, submerged in water or lost in an overgrown landscape, she is briefly, completely herself. The snapping, when it comes, never feels like a plot device. It feels earned. Atwood builds toward each rupture so carefully that the reader arrives there alongside Lucy, relieved and shaken in equal measure. There is real power in watching a character transform, endure, and finally refuse, and this novel renders that arc with honesty and restraint.
A Real Animal is a story that will feel singular to every reader and familiar to many. The passage into young womanhood has rarely been written with this much clarity or this little sentimentality. It is harrowing, luminous, and absolutely worth your time.
Many thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy of this book
The novel moves through tragedy and tenderness with equal steadiness. What keeps Lucy grounded, and what gives the book some of its most beautiful passages, is the natural world. When she is in it, submerged in water or lost in an overgrown landscape, she is briefly, completely herself. The snapping, when it comes, never feels like a plot device. It feels earned. Atwood builds toward each rupture so carefully that the reader arrives there alongside Lucy, relieved and shaken in equal measure. There is real power in watching a character transform, endure, and finally refuse, and this novel renders that arc with honesty and restraint.
A Real Animal is a story that will feel singular to every reader and familiar to many. The passage into young womanhood has rarely been written with this much clarity or this little sentimentality. It is harrowing, luminous, and absolutely worth your time.
Many thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy of this book
November 29, 2025
I found this book lying on the ground in Brooklyn and was excited to find it's an advance copy of a new author's first book!
Gripping story, I was hooked from the first page. This is the kind of book that keeps you up late reading - I devoured it in two days.
It's disturbing at times, but absolutely brilliant how the author captures her character's inner thoughts, the stream of insecurity no one ever speaks aloud. The main character is so well developed and all the supporting characters feel very realistic; you can picture them and hear their voices, even without pages of agonizing detail on how they look, you get to know them by crisp bits of dialogue. The story follows Lucy throughout her twenties. You're cheering for her at times and many other times she'll make you cringe, roll your eyes, and shake your head. I would definitely read more by this author.
Gripping story, I was hooked from the first page. This is the kind of book that keeps you up late reading - I devoured it in two days.
It's disturbing at times, but absolutely brilliant how the author captures her character's inner thoughts, the stream of insecurity no one ever speaks aloud. The main character is so well developed and all the supporting characters feel very realistic; you can picture them and hear their voices, even without pages of agonizing detail on how they look, you get to know them by crisp bits of dialogue. The story follows Lucy throughout her twenties. You're cheering for her at times and many other times she'll make you cringe, roll your eyes, and shake your head. I would definitely read more by this author.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
There's no doubt this is an extraordinary novel. It follows no pattern I've ever seen before and never delivers what you expect. It's all first person, from the mind of Lucy, and follows her from college for about ten years through some emotionally harrowing experiences. I've read several positive reviews, looking for someone who saw the central theme of the book the way I did. They use words like transcendence, propulsive, wildly original. I can agree with all those words. But, no one has mentioned the words that jumped out at me in the first paragraph and stayed with me throughout. Unreliable. Lucy is an unreliable narrator. And, to me, there is an obvious reason why she is unreliable. Some of the experiences she describes are impossible, even though to her mind these experiences are reality. What does this tell us about Lucy?
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I’m floored. . This novel follows Lucy as she navigates her twenties while grappling with the aftermath of an assault. Her journey is raw and unflinching, capturing the complexity of trauma and its effects on every aspect of her life, but particularly her relationships. . The relationships she forms throughout the story are at times predictable, vulnerable, volatile, and deeply heartbreaking. Even when her choices are difficult to read, one can’t help but stand beside her, rooting for her in spite of it all. . Caught between conflicting expectations—to be both demure and domineering—Lucy feels like someone who’s been dealt an impossibly difficult hand. Her story is unsettling, powerful, and unlike anything I’ve read before.
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Thank you to the team at Catapult for sending to me early!
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Thank you to the team at Catapult for sending to me early!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A dark but riveting read about Lucy, who we first meet as she's having a mental breakdown in her college dorm, thinking she's a wild animal and scaling a tree like nobody's business. We then follow her through 3 relationships she has with men through her 20s and early 30s. A lot of the content is shocking and surprising, but the more we get to know Lucy, the more we peel away the layers and better understand who she is and why she makes the decisions she makes. I've never encountered a character like her in literature before. She is the best part of the novel and Atwood's characterization of her leaps off the page. I recommend going into it blind and being stunned by the journey.
Review of advance copy
I received this book as part of the First Novel reviewing program and this was quite a read. Lucy is a 20 something who has quite an interesting life that revolves around relationships, and familial interactions. The writing is sharp and gritty but also very down to earth and Lucy is potrayed as a troubled but relatable girl, one that you could definitely see knowing in real life. Some of the content is a bit shocking but it's nothing that really caused me to lose interest. I really enjoyed the story told here, as well as the journey the author takess us on.
Read
May 11, 2026There are moments in A Real Animal where you can see the potential. A few passages are beautifully written, and the book clearly wants to explore identity, instinct, and vulnerability in an interesting way.
The problem is that it never fully comes together. The pacing feels uneven, and the characters stay just out of reach emotionally. I kept wanting more grounded moments to balance out the heavier, more symbolic writing.
I did not dislike it completely, but it felt like a book I admired from a distance rather than genuinely connected with.
The problem is that it never fully comes together. The pacing feels uneven, and the characters stay just out of reach emotionally. I kept wanting more grounded moments to balance out the heavier, more symbolic writing.
I did not dislike it completely, but it felt like a book I admired from a distance rather than genuinely connected with.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
An exploration of trauma, self-discovery, and belonging. This book will make you uncomfortable, and I encourage you to embrace that discomfort as you follow Lucy's story. The honesty, the lies, the messiness of humanity that we can all relate to but would rather not talk about.
Review of advance copy
i had no idea what this book was about but wow…this is so dark, weird, but thoughtful and had my jaw on the floor the whole time. not a book for everyone though, read the TWs. i don’t think i fully grasped the animal parallels, they seemed weird and random to me.
Review of advance copy
So good!! It drew me in and I couldn’t put it down.
Do yourself a favor and be there when it comes out on 7/7. Ideally be at your local bookshop.
Do yourself a favor and be there when it comes out on 7/7. Ideally be at your local bookshop.
audio-tbr
May 29, 2026lit hu
May 29, 2026
Wow. What a debut!
I was hooked from its febrile, feral first pages.
A primal, character-driven book, with little plot to speak of, and yet I couldn’t put it down. Lucy is an infuriating, often exhausting protagonist, the kind you spend much of the book wanting to shake some sense into. By the end, I found myself increasingly impatient with her, frustrated that after everything she’s been through, she doesn’t seem to have learned anything.
And then it clicked: Lucy’s lack of any obvious transformation may be the book’s most honest insight. Why should she have it all figured out? Why is thirty some kind of benchmark for emotional clarity or growth? Living through difficult, so-called adult experiences doesn’t automatically make you wiser or more stable; sometimes it just leaves you worn down and a little lost.
Atwood‘s understated prose is a purring engine beneath the surface — controlled, but with a latent pressure that erupts in sudden bursts of narrative intensity.
There’s a kind of full-circle quality to the ending, but it doesn’t feel like Lucy is back where she started. Time has passed, something has shifted, and somewhere in that subtle, precarious change, there’s hope.
I’m still turning over the novel’s particular intimacy and the way it blurs the line between human and animal instinct. A book to keep an eye on.
I was hooked from its febrile, feral first pages.
A primal, character-driven book, with little plot to speak of, and yet I couldn’t put it down. Lucy is an infuriating, often exhausting protagonist, the kind you spend much of the book wanting to shake some sense into. By the end, I found myself increasingly impatient with her, frustrated that after everything she’s been through, she doesn’t seem to have learned anything.
And then it clicked: Lucy’s lack of any obvious transformation may be the book’s most honest insight. Why should she have it all figured out? Why is thirty some kind of benchmark for emotional clarity or growth? Living through difficult, so-called adult experiences doesn’t automatically make you wiser or more stable; sometimes it just leaves you worn down and a little lost.
Atwood‘s understated prose is a purring engine beneath the surface — controlled, but with a latent pressure that erupts in sudden bursts of narrative intensity.
There’s a kind of full-circle quality to the ending, but it doesn’t feel like Lucy is back where she started. Time has passed, something has shifted, and somewhere in that subtle, precarious change, there’s hope.
I’m still turning over the novel’s particular intimacy and the way it blurs the line between human and animal instinct. A book to keep an eye on.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews